STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!!!!

[nachoqtpie]

So, yesterday I set out the seedlings for some hardening time. My son and I were working in the garden and we decided to take a break. While on that break, my husband decides that he wants steak and potato salad for dinner and I got side tracked making the potato salad and thawing steak and making bread that we never did get back to the garden. I BOLTED awake at 4am and said "Oh my God! I forgot the plants outside!" I rushed outside (at 4am in my jammies none the less!) And brought them inside. It was quite chilly out there but it didn't frost. Some of them look like they ar starting to bounce back, hbut some are not looking so good. Do you think I killed my plants?! I'm going to plant some more tomatoes anyways because most of them didn't like the transplant and have started to die off.

 

[catjac1975]

Time will tell. I leave my plants right outside the backdoor so I have to trip over them. I have still ruined months of hard work forgetting them. A light spray of water may help the plant cells.
I know lots of people transplant their tomatoes again and again. I do not. I over seed and then reduce the seedlings to a modest number. It saves a lot of work and there is no transplant shock.

 

[lesa]

I always say, starting seeds is easy- hardening them off, not so much!! I am sure most of them will be fine... you've got plenty of time, don't worry!

 

[nachoqtpie]

They seem to all be okay now.... other than the tomatoes I planted in our homegrown compost. They seem to have all died, but the ones I planted in the store bought compost from last year are doing really well. Those ones were still sticking straight up this morning like little champs! Do you think our compost needs more time to cook before we use it?I have no problems waiting till this fall to dump on our homegrown!

 

[vfem]

Oooh... way too early for tomatoes! I'm sorry.

What other plants were you hardening off? I'm sure any that are cool season will bounce back fine. I've done that before. I try to only harden off when I know I'll give them a few hours for a couple of days, then a few more hours for a couple more days... so on and so forth. I never give them a full day right away, I also plant more then I need because I really do lose quite a few every year. I've never had total success hardening off. Its really quite hard! UGH!

 

[nachoqtpie]

I honestly didn't intend to leave them out there that long. We were only going to work for a couple of hours and then I was going to bring them back in. I had eggplant, which are all seeming to bounce back (surprisingly!! LOL), potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower along with my tomatoes. I was going to follow the few hours for 3-4 days and then extend... *sigh* I just hope that I didn't kill them all!

The low last night was 46, so no frost at least. I'm going to start some more tomatoes today... just in case... LOL I've still got about a month before they should be safe to put in the ground, so, I think I SHOULD be okay.... hopefully!! LOL

I noticed that some of the tomatoes were starting to die off yesterday because they were wilty and didn't seem to want to stand up very well for me. I think it had more to do with the compost than it did me forgetting them outside last night. :/

 

[digitS']

. . . planted in our homegrown compost. . . Do you think our compost needs more time to cook before we use it? . . .

Starting seed in containers of homegrown compost is risky. I know that we all want to take as much control of the process as we can. "Start to finish - those are MY plants!" Some of us get away with using a home-mix. I've tried it with mixed results.

Starting-over becomes problematic after awhile. I can have 10-week tomato plants, 8-week tomatoes, 6-week tomatoes . . . tiny plants were not what I was hoping for :/. If I lose some of the older plants, I've lost labor and soil and seeds. There isn't much problem relying on the 8-week plants but 6-week plants are as far back up this road as I'm bothering to go .

The risk in the homegrown compost is all about the microbes that are decomposing it. I could bake it in my oven but I can't stand the stink it's going to create ! There's no absolute guarantee that I'm going to avoid damping-off of the seedlings with starting mix from the bag but there's less risk to the tiny things.

If you have found a good starting soil that brings you some success - change that only if you realize that starting-over means lose of that most important element - time!

Steve

Oh, and don't be so hard on yourself, kid . . . Whose memory is infallible? To error is human!

 

[nachoqtpie]

Well... I didn't START them in the compost mix... I started them in starting mix, but decided that since they had some leaves, that I would put them in the compost mix. I don't think that it was such a good idea now... :/ I DID have 12... now I have 4!

Live and learn I guess...

 

[nachoqtpie]

So... one of the dogs tails took out my "big" tomato plant.

I have 3 of my originals that I planted left. Apparently some of the seeds that I had tried to start and they didn't come up, came up in the compost!

It's SOOOO nice today, (currently 81) but its super super windy, so I didn't put them out today. *sigh* C'mon weather! I need to start hardening off some of these plants!

 

[so lucky]

It's become really windy here today, too. Started off calm but the wind is picking up as the day wears on. Had my cabbage, broccoli and tiny tomatoes out for a while today. I can sure empathize with your leaving them out there. The only reason I have remembered so far this year is that I have to walk past them to let the chickens out in the afternoon, and I sure can't leave those tender little juicy plants out with the chickens! I am running out of room under my lights! Once I pot up more babies, there will be no more room for them. I sure hope we get the fence up sooooon so I can plant the stuff in the garden! Got the posts in today. I may be able to rustle up enough energy to start on the wire this afternoon. (sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread!)